Archive from January 2013

We spent last weekend in Bordeaux at Château Beau Rivage for a
couple of Vinification Experience Days. The aim of this
hands-on wine course is to learn more about the vinification and
ageing stages in winemaking. Considering the amount of rain
that had fallen during the preceding days, luckily it was planned
to spend most of the time inside!

The day started in the fermentation hall. Here, Christine,
the winemaker and owner at Château Beau Rivage, explained to us
how the grapes are received during the harvest, how the grape
juice is transformed into wine during the first fermentation, and
why the second malo-lactic fermentation is important to soften
the taste of the wine.

We then moved into the barrel room. Christine's family have
been coopers for several generations, and so Christine talked
passionately about the influence that the barrels plays on the
wine, and the large choice that the winemakers have in the choice
of their barrels.

But the Wine Experience Days aren't just for listening and
discussing. We had organised several practical workshops to
help us learn more about wine and winemaking.

Lots of wine tasting happens during the Vinification Experience
Day, so to help us find the words to describe what it is we are
tasting, the first workshop concentrated on the nose. With
the help of little glass flasks, we had to try and name the
aromas found in wine that are brought by the fruit and the
barrel. It's often harder than you would think to correctly
put a name to a smell!

For the first series of tasting, we tasted three wines that are
still ageing. Each wine was the same grape variety, picked
on the same day, the only difference being the type of barrel it
has been ageing in. The difference is unbelievable -
you would think that they were three completely different
wines. This exercise clearly shows the impact of oak on the
wine. The first barrel was made using Eastern Eurpoean oak,
the second with American oak, and the third with French oak.

During lunch we savoured some South West French specialities,
accompanied with different wines and vintages produced at the
winery, including the "Château Beau Rivage" Bordeaux Supérieur,
the wine chosen for the Gourmet Odyssey clients, and the winery's
"Clos la Bohème" Haut-Médoc wine.

The afternoon was taken up with blending. To start, we
first tasted four grape varieties separately to better understand
what each brings to the wine. The fruitiness of the Merlot,
more spice from the Malbec, the length of the Cabernet Sauvignon,
and the acidity of the Petit Verdot.

In small groups, we each then mixed our own blends to see
firsthand how the taste of the wine differs depending on the
grape varieties and percentages used.

To finish the day, Christine gave us a taste of a blend that she
had put together, which showed us that 20 years of experience in
blending wines does indeed count for something!